Eugene 2022: Caster Semenya 5 years after, eliminated but supported by the crowd



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Eugene 2022: Caster Semenya 5 years after, eliminated but supported by the crowd

At the Track & Filed World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, Caster Semenya returned to compete in the world championship competition, 5 years after the last time. The South African, forced to compete the 5000 meters after the IAAF rule that prohibits women with excess testosterone from competing in women's trials between 400 and the mile, finished with the 28th time in the heats, failing to hit the the final.

Caster, at the London World Championshis, had won gold in 800 and bronze in 1500. Between sentences and appeals, the South African has been fighting for years in the courts to have her status recognized worldwide. Caster finished her battery in thirteenth position, 54" behind the winner, the Ethiopian Gudaf Tsegay.

For her it is the 28th total time of her. Semenya, before the transition to 2000 loses contact with the head of the group. The ride is not smooth. The South African does the 3rd km in 3'15 "and the 4th in 3'17". In the last one she loses another couple of positions.

In addition to 54 ”from Tsegay, she is also about fifteen seconds beyond her personal figure obtained in April in Cape Town, a time that has helped to increase her international ranking, bringing her to Eugene.

Semenya's several highlights

On 27 July 2012 she is chosen as the flag bearer for South Africa at the opening ceremony of the XXX Olympiad in London.

In December 2015, she got married to her girlfriend Violet Raseboya. In 2018 she becomes the first athlete ever capable of holding a personal best of less than 50 seconds in the 400 meters flat, less than 2 minutes in the 800 meters and less than 4 minutes in the 1500 meters.

In 2019 Caster Semenya filed an appeal with the Sports Arbitration Tribunal against the new legislation introduced by the IAAF which provides that athletes who exceed the limit of 5 nanomoles of testosterone per liter of blood must reduce the value of their testosterone by undertaking a specific drug treatment, in order to be able to compete in international events over distances ranging from 400m to mile.

Following the decision by the CAS to validate the new rule, the South African federation appeals to the Swiss Federal Court which on June 3 temporarily suspends the application of the regulation on the limitation of testosterone, allowing Semenya to return to compete.

However, in July the same Swiss Federal Court cancels the suspension of the new rule. In September 2019 she is signed by JVW F.C., a militant women's football team in the SAFA Sasol Women's League and owned by Janine van Wyk.